Creating the worst result in the World Table Tennis Championships in 50 years in China's men's doubles, it is time to consider letting Fan Zhendong come back to stabilize the morale of the army

At the 2025 World Table Tennis Championships in Doha, China's performance in Men's Doubles was disappointing, with the two pairs of Liang Jingkun/Huang Youzheng and Lin Gaoyuan/Lin Shidong losing to Chinese Taipei's Lin Yunru/Gao Chengrui in the round of 16 and quarterfinals respectively, setting the worst result in the Chinese Men's Doubles at the World Championships in 50 years. The last time no Chinese team reached the men's doubles semifinals of the World Table Tennis Championships was the 1975 World Table Tennis Championships in Kolkata, India.

Lin Gaoyuan/Lin Shidong stopped in the quarterfinals

In the men's doubles quarterfinals on the 22nd, the No. 3 seeds and the "Shuanglin Pair" of the Chinese team, Lin Gaoyuan/Lin Shidong, faced the No. 6 seeds, Chinese Taipei's Lin Yunru/Gao Chengrui. In this 38-minute game, Lin Gaoyuan/Lin Shidong lost 5:11 and 9:11 in a row, although they adjusted their playing style in the third game and recovered a game of 11:5, but lost 8:11 in the fourth game, lost 1:3 in the number of games, and missed the semifinals, which also means that there is no combination of the Chinese team in the men's doubles semifinals of this World Table Tennis Championships.

Liang Jingkun/Huang Youzheng stopped in the previous round of 16

Another Chinese pair, No.9 seeds Liang Jingkun/Huang Youzheng, also lost 2:3 to Lin Yunru/Gao Chengrui in the round of 16 earlier. Last year, China swept 5 gold medals at the World Championships, of which Fan Zhendong/Wang Chuqin won the men's doubles gold medal, but the two pairs of men's doubles failed to reach the quarterfinals this year, representing that China could not monopolize the 5 gold medals this year. The Chinese team was wiped out in the men's doubles, and also set the worst men's doubles result in the world championships in the past 50 years. The last time the Chinese team missed the men's doubles semifinals of the World Table Tennis Championships was back in 1975 at the World Table Tennis Championships in Kolkata, India.

Wang Hao, head coach of the Chinese men's table tennis team, previously said: "As the head coach preparing for the World Table Tennis Championships (Table Tennis World Championships) for the second time, I feel that this may be the most difficult one in the past ten or twenty years. He also said: "Every World Championships and Olympic Games, we have defending champions to take everyone to play, but this time is really different, and young athletes like Wang Chuqin and Lin Shidong are needed to carry the flag." The main athletes (of the Chinese table tennis team) have gone through three or four or even more than five World Championships before finally winning the championship, so we can only let go and fight this time. ”

Some media suggested that they should consider letting Fan Zhendong come back to stabilize the morale of the military.

The domestic media "The Paper" issued an article on the 23rd, saying that the Chinese team did not have two "ballast stones" of Ma Long and Fan Zhendong, which seemed a little stormy. The article pointed out that the Chinese team needs to find someone who can fix the team's morale, and wrote: "At some stage, trying to bring players like Fan Zhendong back on the field may be a solution." ”